Control information monitoring framework for cellular communication

ABSTRACT

This disclosure relates to performing cellular communication using a control information monitoring framework. A wireless device may monitor a control channel for control information according to a first periodic pattern. According to the first periodic pattern, the wireless device may monitor the control channel in a specified slot during each period of the first periodic pattern. Each period of the first periodic pattern may include multiple slots. The wireless device may receive control information during a first slot. The first slot may be a specified slot according to the first periodic pattern. The control information received during the first slot may schedule a data communication. The wireless device may monitor the control channel for control information in at least one slot that is not specified according to the first periodic pattern based at least in part on receiving control information during a specified slot according to the first periodic pattern.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 62/670,020, entitled “Control Information Monitoring Frameworkfor Cellular Communication,” filed May 11, 2018, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety as though fully and completelyset forth herein.

FIELD

The present application relates to wireless communications, and moreparticularly to systems, apparatuses, and methods for providing acontrol information monitoring framework for cellular communication.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. In recentyears, wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers havebecome increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting telephonecalls, many mobile devices (i.e., user equipment devices or UEs) nowprovide access to the internet, email, text messaging, and navigationusing the global positioning system (GPS), and are capable of operatingsophisticated applications that utilize these functionalities.Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communicationtechnologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communicationstandards include GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA orTD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, LTE Advanced (LTE-A), NR, HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN orWi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), BLUETOOTH′, etc.

The ever increasing number of features and functionality introduced inwireless communication devices also creates a continuous need forimprovement in both wireless communications and in wirelesscommunication devices. In particular, it is important to ensure theaccuracy of transmitted and received signals through user equipment (UE)devices, e.g., through wireless devices such as cellular phones, basestations and relay stations used in wireless cellular communications. Inaddition, increasing the functionality of a UE device can place asignificant strain on the battery life of the UE device. Thus it is veryimportant to also reduce power requirements for wireless communicationswhile allowing the UE device to maintain good transmit and receiveabilities for improved communications. Accordingly, improvements in thefield are desired.

SUMMARY

Embodiments are presented herein of apparatuses, systems, and methodsfor providing a control information monitoring framework for cellularcommunication.

According to the control information monitoring framework, it may bepossible for a cellular base station to provide control information towireless devices in accordance with a periodic monitoring configuration,such that the wireless device may be expected to monitor a controlchannel for control information during only a subset of each controlinformation monitoring period. As a result, the wireless device may beable to reduce its power consumption by placing at least some wirelessdevice components into a low power mode (e.g., ‘sleeping’) during theportion of each control information monitoring period that the wirelessdevice is not expected to monitor the control channel rather thancontinuously monitoring the control channel.

Further according to the control information monitoring framework, theremay be an arrangement for configuring additional opportunities for thecellular base station to provide control information, e.g., in casethere is demand to communicate more data than could be supported by theperiodic monitoring configuration.

As one possibility for the arrangement for configuring additionalcontrol information provision opportunities, each time the cellular basestation provides control information to the wireless device, this mayimplicitly schedule an additional control channel monitoring window forthe wireless device, e.g., at a predetermined time relative to when thecontrol information is provided.

As another possibility for the arrangement for configuring additionalcontrol information provision opportunities, when the cellular basestation provides control information to the wireless device, thistrigger a modification of the periodic monitoring configuration, e.g.,to a configuration in which the subset of each control informationmonitoring period that the wireless device is expected to monitor thecontrol channel for control information may represent a greaterproportion of each control information monitoring period.

Such a dynamic control channel monitoring framework may result inreduced wireless device power consumption while retaining substantialnetwork scheduling flexibility and with little or no reduction topotential wireless device throughput, at least according to someembodiments.

Note that the techniques described herein may be implemented in and/orused with a number of different types of devices, including but notlimited to base stations, access points, cellular phones, portable mediaplayers, tablet computers, wearable devices, and various other computingdevices.

This Summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of thesubject matter described in this document. Accordingly, it will beappreciated that the above-described features are merely examples andshould not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subjectmatter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, andadvantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparentfrom the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary base station in communication with anexemplary wireless user equipment (UE) device, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a communication flow diagram illustrating aspects of anexemplary possible method for providing a control information monitoringframework for cellular communication, according to some embodiments;

FIGS. 6-11 illustrate various aspects of exemplary possible frameworksfor control information monitoring in a cellular communication system,according to some embodiments; and

FIG. 12 illustrates various possible example wireless device controlchannel monitoring state options according to various possibleframeworks for control information monitoring in a cellularcommunication system, according to some embodiments.

While features described herein are susceptible to various modificationsand alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should beunderstood, however, that the drawings and detailed description theretoare not intended to be limiting to the particular form disclosed, but onthe contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalentsand alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subjectmatter as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Acronyms

Various acronyms are used throughout the present disclosure. Definitionsof the most prominently used acronyms that may appear throughout thepresent disclosure are provided below:

-   -   UE: User Equipment    -   RF: Radio Frequency    -   BS: Base Station    -   GSM: Global System for Mobile Communication    -   UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System    -   LTE: Long Term Evolution    -   NR: New Radio    -   TX: Transmission/Transmit    -   RX: Reception/Receive    -   RAT: Radio Access Technology

Terms

The following is a glossary of terms that may appear in the presentdisclosure:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of non-transitory memory devices orstorage devices. The term “memory medium” is intended to include aninstallation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device; acomputer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM,SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash,magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, orother similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium maycomprise other types of non-transitory memory as well or combinationsthereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a firstcomputer system in which the programs are executed, or may be located ina second different computer system which connects to the first computersystem over a network, such as the Internet. In the latter instance, thesecond computer system may provide program instructions to the firstcomputer system for execution. The term “memory medium” may include twoor more memory mediums which may reside in different locations, e.g., indifferent computer systems that are connected over a network. The memorymedium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as computerprograms) that may be executed by one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Computer System (or Computer)—any of various types of computing orprocessing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), mainframecomputer system, workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance,personal digital assistant (PDA), television system, grid computingsystem, or other device or combinations of devices. In general, the term“computer system” may be broadly defined to encompass any device (orcombination of devices) having at least one processor that executesinstructions from a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), tablet computers(e.g., iPad™, Samsung Galaxy™), portable gaming devices (e.g., NintendoDS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™, iPhone™), wearable devices(e.g., smart watch, smart glasses), laptops, PDAs, portable Internetdevices, music players, data storage devices, or other handheld devices,etc. In general, the term “UE” or “UE device” can be broadly defined toencompass any electronic, computing, and/or telecommunications device(or combination of devices) which is easily transported by a user andcapable of wireless communication.

Wireless Device—any of various types of computer systems or devices thatperform wireless communications. A wireless device can be portable (ormobile) or may be stationary or fixed at a certain location. A UE is anexample of a wireless device.

Communication Device—any of various types of computer systems or devicesthat perform communications, where the communications can be wired orwireless. A communication device can be portable (or mobile) or may bestationary or fixed at a certain location. A wireless device is anexample of a communication device. A UE is another example of acommunication device.

Base Station (BS)—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element (or Processor)—refers to various elements orcombinations of elements that are capable of performing a function in adevice, e.g. in a user equipment device or in a cellular network device.Processing elements may include, for example: processors and associatedmemory, portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entireprocessor cores, processor arrays, circuits such as an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit), programmable hardware elements such as afield programmable gate array (FPGA), as well any of variouscombinations of the above.

Wi-Fi—The term “Wi-Fi” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, andat least includes a wireless communication network or RAT that isserviced by wireless LAN (WLAN) access points and which providesconnectivity through these access points to the Internet. Most modernWi-Fi networks (or WLAN networks) are based on IEEE 802.11 standards andare marketed under the name “Wi-Fi”. A Wi-Fi (WLAN) network is differentfrom a cellular network.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

Configured to—Various components may be described as “configured to”perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broadrecitation generally meaning “having structure that” performs the taskor tasks during operation. As such, the component can be configured toperform the task even when the component is not currently performingthat task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors may be configured toelectrically connect a module to another module, even when the twomodules are not connected). In some contexts, “configured to” may be abroad recitation of structure generally meaning “having circuitry that”performs the task or tasks during operation. As such, the component canbe configured to perform the task even when the component is notcurrently on. In general, the circuitry that forms the structurecorresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits.

Various components may be described as performing a task or tasks, forconvenience in the description. Such descriptions should be interpretedas including the phrase “configured to.” Reciting a component that isconfigured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not toinvoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph six, interpretation for thatcomponent.

FIGS. 1 and 2—Exemplary Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem in which aspects of this disclosure may be implemented, accordingto some embodiments. It is noted that the system of FIG. 1 is merely oneexample of a possible system, and embodiments may be implemented in anyof various systems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a basestation 102 which communicates over a transmission medium with one ormore (e.g., an arbitrary number of) user devices 106A, 106B, etc.through 106N. Each of the user devices may be referred to herein as a“user equipment” (UE) or UE device. Thus, the user devices 106 arereferred to as UEs or UE devices.

The base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or cellsite, and may include hardware and/or software that enables wirelesscommunication with the UEs 106A through 106N. If the base station 102 isimplemented in the context of LTE, it may alternately be referred to asan ‘eNodeB’ or ‘eNB’. If the base station 102 is implemented in thecontext of 5G NR, it may alternately be referred to as a ‘gNodeB’ or‘gNB’. The base station 102 may also be equipped to communicate with anetwork 100 (e.g., a core network of a cellular service provider, atelecommunication network such as a public switched telephone network(PSTN), and/or the Internet, among various possibilities). Thus, thebase station 102 may facilitate communication among the user devicesand/or between the user devices and the network 100. The communicationarea (or coverage area) of the base station may be referred to as a“cell.” As also used herein, from the perspective of UEs, a base stationmay sometimes be considered as representing the network insofar asuplink and downlink communications of the UE are concerned. Thus, a UEcommunicating with one or more base stations in the network may also beinterpreted as the UE communicating with the network.

The base station 102 and the user devices may be configured tocommunicate over the transmission medium using any of various radioaccess technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communicationtechnologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA),LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LAA/LTE-U, 5G NR, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g.,1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, etc.

Base station 102 and other similar base stations operating according tothe same or a different cellular communication standard may thus beprovided as one or more networks of cells, which may provide continuousor nearly continuous overlapping service to UE 106 and similar devicesover a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

Note that a UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiplewireless communication standards. For example, a UE 106 might beconfigured to communicate using either or both of a 3GPP cellularcommunication standard or a 3GPP2 cellular communication standard. Insome embodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to perform cellularcommunication using a control channel monitoring framework such asaccording to the various methods described herein. The UE 106 might alsoor alternatively be configured to communicate using WLAN, BLUETOOTH™,one or more global navigational satellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS orGLONASS), one and/or more mobile television broadcasting standards(e.g., ATSC-M/H), etc. Other combinations of wireless communicationstandards (including more than two wireless communication standards) arealso possible.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary user equipment 106 (e.g., one of thedevices 106A through 106N) in communication with the base station 102,according to some embodiments. The UE 106 may be a device with wirelessnetwork connectivity such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, awearable device, a computer or a tablet, or virtually any type ofwireless device. The UE 106 may include a processor (processing element)that is configured to execute program instructions stored in memory. TheUE 106 may perform any of the method embodiments described herein byexecuting such stored instructions. Alternatively, or in addition, theUE 106 may include a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA(field-programmable gate array), an integrated circuit, and/or any ofvarious other possible hardware components that are configured toperform (e.g., individually or in combination) any of the methodembodiments described herein, or any portion of any of the methodembodiments described herein. The UE 106 may be configured tocommunicate using any of multiple wireless communication protocols. Forexample, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using two or moreof CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations ofwireless communication standards are also possible.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols according to one or more RATstandards. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may share one or more partsof a receive chain and/or transmit chain between multiple wirelesscommunication standards. The shared radio may include a single antenna,or may include multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) for performingwireless communications. In general, a radio may include any combinationof a baseband processor, analog RF signal processing circuitry (e.g.,including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digitalprocessing circuitry (e.g., for digital modulation as well as otherdigital processing). Similarly, the radio may implement one or morereceive and transmit chains using the aforementioned hardware.

In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include separate transmit and/orreceive chains (e.g., including separate antennas and other radiocomponents) for each wireless communication protocol with which it isconfigured to communicate. As a further possibility, the UE 106 mayinclude one or more radios that are shared between multiple wirelesscommunication protocols, and one or more radios that are usedexclusively by a single wireless communication protocol. For example,the UE 106 may include a shared radio for communicating using either ofLTE or CDMA2000 1×RTT (or LTE or NR, LTE or GSM), and separate radiosfor communicating using each of Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH′. Otherconfigurations are also possible.

FIG. 3—Block Diagram of an Exemplary UE Device

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary UE 106, according tosome embodiments. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on chip(SOC) 300, which may include portions for various purposes. For example,as shown, the SOC 300 may include processor(s) 302 which may executeprogram instructions for the UE 106 and display circuitry 304 which mayperform graphics processing and provide display signals to the display360. The processor(s) 302 may also be coupled to memory management unit(MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from theprocessor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations in memory(e.g., memory 306, read only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310)and/or to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuitry 304,radio 330, connector I/F 320, and/or display 360. The MMU 340 may beconfigured to perform memory protection and page table translation orset up. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as a portion ofthe processor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g.,including NAND flash 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for couplingto a computer system, dock, charging station, etc.), the display 360,and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR,CDMA2000, BLUETOOTH′, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.). The UE device 106 may includeat least one antenna (e.g. 335 a), and possibly multiple antennas (e.g.illustrated by antennas 335 a and 335 b), for performing wirelesscommunication with base stations and/or other devices. Antennas 335 aand 335 b are shown by way of example, and UE device 106 may includefewer or more antennas. Overall, the one or more antennas arecollectively referred to as antenna 335. For example, the UE device 106may use antenna 335 to perform the wireless communication with the aidof radio circuitry 330. As noted above, the UE may be configured tocommunicate wirelessly using multiple wireless communication standardsin some embodiments.

The UE 106 may include hardware and software components for implementingmethods for the UE 106 to perform cellular communication using a controlinformation monitoring framework such as described further subsequentlyherein. The processor(s) 302 of the UE device 106 may be configured toimplement part or all of the methods described herein, e.g., byexecuting program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., anon-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments,processor(s) 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element,such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC(Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Furthermore, processor(s) 302may be coupled to and/or may interoperate with other components as shownin FIG. 3, to perform cellular communication using a control informationmonitoring framework according to various embodiments disclosed herein.Processor(s) 302 may also implement various other applications and/orend-user applications running on UE 106.

In some embodiments, radio 330 may include separate controllersdedicated to controlling communications for various respective RATstandards. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, radio 330 may include aWi-Fi controller 352, a cellular controller (e.g. LTE and/or LTE-Acontroller) 354, and BLUETOOTH′ controller 356, and in at least someembodiments, one or more or all of these controllers may be implementedas respective integrated circuits (ICs or chips, for short) incommunication with each other and with SOC 300 (and more specificallywith processor(s) 302). For example, Wi-Fi controller 352 maycommunicate with cellular controller 354 over a cell-ISM link or WCIinterface, and/or BLUETOOTH™ controller 356 may communicate withcellular controller 354 over a cell-ISM link, etc. While three separatecontrollers are illustrated within radio 330, other embodiments havefewer or more similar controllers for various different RATs that may beimplemented in UE device 106.

Further, embodiments in which controllers may implement functionalityassociated with multiple radio access technologies are also envisioned.For example, according to some embodiments, the cellular controller 354may, in addition to hardware and/or software components for performingcellular communication, include hardware and/or software components forperforming one or more activities associated with Wi-Fi, such as Wi-Fipreamble detection, and/or generation and transmission of Wi-Fi physicallayer preamble signals.

FIG. 4—Block Diagram of an Exemplary Base Station

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary base station 102,according to some embodiments. It is noted that the base station of FIG.4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the basestation 102 may include processor(s) 404 which may execute programinstructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also becoupled to memory management unit (MMU) 440, which may be configured toreceive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate thoseaddresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read only memory(ROM) 450) or to other circuits or devices.

The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106, access to thetelephone network as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2. The network port470 (or an additional network port) may also or alternatively beconfigured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., a core network of acellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility relatedservices and/or other services to a plurality of devices, such as UEdevices 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may couple to atelephone network via the core network, and/or the core network mayprovide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devices serviced bythe cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possiblymultiple antennas. The antenna(s) 434 may be configured to operate as awireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate withUE devices 106 via radio 430. The antenna(s) 434 communicates with theradio 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 may be areceive chain, a transmit chain or both. The radio 430 may be designedto communicate via various wireless telecommunication standards,including, but not limited to, NR, LTE, LTE-A WCDMA, CDMA2000, etc. Theprocessor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implementand/or support implementation of part or all of the methods describedherein, e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memorymedium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium).Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmablehardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or asan ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or a combinationthereof. In the case of certain RATs, for example Wi-Fi, base station102 may be designed as an access point (AP), in which case network port470 may be implemented to provide access to a wide area network and/orlocal area network (s), e.g., it may include at least one Ethernet port,and radio 430 may be designed to communicate according to the Wi-Fistandard. The base station 102 may operate according to the variousmethods as disclosed herein for performing cellular communication inaccordance with a control information monitoring framework.

FIG. 5—Control Information Monitoring Framework for CellularCommunication

FIG. 5 is a communication flow diagram illustrating a method forwireless devices (e.g., a cellular base station and a wireless userequipment (UE) device, as shown, as one possibility) to perform cellularcommunication using a control information monitoring framework,according to some embodiments.

Aspects of the method of FIG. 5 may be implemented by a wireless deviceand a cellular base station, such as a UE 106 and a BS 102 illustratedin and described with respect to various of the Figures herein, or moregenerally in conjunction with any of the computer circuitry, systems,elements, or components shown in the above Figures, among others, asdesired. For example, a processor (and/or other hardware) of such adevice may be configured to cause the device to perform any combinationof the illustrated method elements and/or other method elements.

Note that while at least some elements of the method of FIG. 5 aredescribed in a manner relating to the use of communication techniquesand/or features associated with LTE, LTE-A, NR, and/or 3GPPspecification documents, such description is not intended to be limitingto the disclosure, and aspects of the method of FIG. 5 may be used inany suitable wireless communication system, as desired.

In various embodiments, some of the elements of the methods shown may beperformed concurrently, in a different order than shown, may besubstituted for by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additionalmethod elements may also be performed as desired. As shown, the methodof FIG. 5 may operate as follows.

In 502, a wireless device may monitor a control channel according to afirst periodic pattern. The wireless device may monitor the controlchannel for control information that its serving base station mayprovide, e.g., to schedule a downlink or uplink data communication oracknowledgement, or for any of various other possible purposes. Forexample, the control channel may be a physical downlink control channel(e.g., a NR-PDCCH if the serving base station is a 5G NR base station,or a LTE-PDCCH if the serving base station is a LTE base station), whichthe base station may use to provide control information to scheduleresources of a physical downlink shared channel or a physical uplinkshared channel for the wireless device for a downlink datacommunication, an uplink data communication, or an acknowledgement.

Performing control channel monitoring according to the first periodicpattern may include monitoring the control channel in a specified slot(or set of slots) during each period of the first periodic pattern. Eachperiod of the first periodic pattern may include multiple communicationslots. It may be the case that if the cellular base station does notprovide control information to the wireless device on the controlchannel in the specified slot(s) during a given period, the base stationmay also not provide control information to the wireless device on thecontrol channel for a remainder of the slots of the period (e.g., inaccordance with cellular communication standard specifications for acellular communication technology used by the wireless device and thebase station, configuration information previously provided by the basestation, and/or any of various other possible arrangements/agreements).Thus, the wireless device may not miss any control information even ifthe wireless device does not monitor the control channel during thoseslots, and thus may further be able to enter a low power (e.g., sleep)mode until the next specified slot according to the first periodicpattern, if no control information is detected on the control channelduring one or more specified slots according to the first periodicpattern, at least according to some embodiments.

In 504, the base station may provide control information to the wirelessdevice using the control channel during a first slot, which may be aspecified slot according to the first periodic pattern. The wirelessdevice may be monitoring the control channel during the first slot(e.g., in accordance with the first periodic pattern), and so may beable to detect and receive the control information. The controlinformation received during the first slot may schedule a datacommunication, such as an uplink or downlink data communication or anacknowledgement, as previously noted herein. The data communication mayalso be scheduled for the first slot, or may be scheduled for asubsequent slot (e.g., same-slot scheduling or cross-slot scheduling maybe used).

In 506, the wireless device may monitor the control channel for controlinformation in at least one slot that is not specified according to thefirst periodic pattern. Such monitoring of the control channel inaddition to those slots specified according to the periodic pattern maybe based at least in part on the wireless device having received controlinformation during a specified slot according to the first periodicpattern (e.g., the first slot). For example, receiving controlinformation while monitoring the control channel according to the firstperiodic pattern may trigger opportunistic monitoring of one or moreadditional slots by the wireless device, and/or may trigger a (e.g.,temporary) transition to a second stage of periodic monitoring of thecontrol channel. Such additional monitoring may help support thepossibility of providing more data communication opportunities to thewireless device, which may improve data throughput to the wirelessdevice and/or increase overall network resource usage efficiency, amongvarious possible benefits.

The wireless device may perform such additional control channelmonitoring in a manner known by (e.g., configured by or otherwise inaccordance with some pre-agreement with) the base station. Thus, thecellular base station may expect the wireless device to monitor thecontrol channel in the at least one slot that is not specified accordingto the first periodic pattern, and so, in 508, the base station mayprovide control information during a slot that is not a specified slotaccording to the first periodic pattern (e.g., and that the base stationexpects that the wireless device will be monitoring the controlchannel). As the wireless device may be monitoring the control channelduring that slot, the wireless device may be able to detect and receivethe control information during the slot that is not a specified slotaccording to the first periodic pattern.

Any of a variety of possible configurations may be used for theadditional control channel monitoring such that the wireless device andthe base station may mutually be aware of the slot(s) in which controlinformation may be provided to the wireless device in addition to thosespecified according to the first periodic pattern. As one possibility,an opportunistic control channel monitoring/scheduling arrangement maybe used, e.g., such that a wireless device may monitor the controlchannel in a slot that occurs at a specified interval after the slot inwhich the control information is provided, such as the same slot inwhich the data communication is scheduled (e.g., if cross-slotscheduling is used), a slot immediately after a slot in which thescheduled data communication occurs, or any other slot that can bepredetermined by both the wireless device and the cellular base stationin relation to provision of the control information. For example,monitoring the control channel for control information in at least oneslot that is not specified according to the first periodic pattern mayinclude monitoring the control channel in a second slot that occurs at aspecified interval after the first slot, as one possibility. Suchopportunistic monitoring may be chained for any number of additionalpotential scheduling opportunities; for example, the base station couldprovide control information during the second slot that schedules a datacommunication, in which case the wireless device may further monitor thecontrol channel during a third slot that occurs at a specified intervalafter the second slot, according to such a framework.

As another possibility, a multi-stage control channelmonitoring/scheduling arrangement may be used. For example, provision ofcontrol information during a specified slot according to the firstperiodic pattern may trigger the wireless device to (e.g., temporarily)monitor the control channel according to a second periodic pattern. Thesecond periodic pattern may include more dense control channelmonitoring (e.g., a higher proportion of slots specified as slots to bemonitored by the wireless device) than the first periodic pattern; forexample, the second periodic pattern may have a shorter period than thefirst periodic pattern, or may include a greater number of slotsspecified as slots to be monitored by the wireless device during eachperiod than the first periodic pattern, among various possibilities.Thus, the wireless device may monitor the control channel according tothe second periodic pattern based at least in part on receiving controlinformation during a specified slot according to the first periodicpattern, according to such a framework. The wireless device may monitorthe control channel according to the second periodic pattern for acertain specified duration (e.g., one or more periods according to thefirst periodic pattern, as one possibility), and may subsequently resumemonitoring the control channel according to the first periodic pattern.

Note that the duration of monitoring the control channel according tothe second periodic pattern could be extended, e.g., if the base stationprovides control information during a slot that is a specified slotaccording to the first periodic pattern (or possibly if the base stationprovides control information during any slot) while the wireless deviceis already monitoring the control channel in accordance with the secondperiodic pattern, if desired.

Note further that, if desired, a temporal offset may be applied afterreceiving control information during a specified slot according to thefirst periodic pattern (e.g., the first slot) before the wireless devicebegins monitoring the control channel according to the second periodicpattern. This may provide additional time for a wireless device (e.g.,with hardware or other limitations that might have difficulty or beunable to do so more quickly) to transition to a more dense controlchannel monitoring pattern.

Such a multi-stage control channel monitoring framework may furtherinclude any number of additional stages, if desired. For example, thewireless device could be configured to monitor the control channelaccording to a third periodic pattern (e.g., with still denser controlchannel monitoring frequency, such that the third periodic pattern has ashorter period than the second periodic pattern and/or includes agreater number of slots specified as slots to be monitored by thewireless device during each period than the second periodic pattern) ifcontrol information is received during a specified slot according to thesecond periodic pattern that is not specified according to the firstperiodic pattern. Once configured to do so, the wireless device maymonitor the control channel according to the third periodic pattern fora certain specified duration (e.g., one or more periods according to thefirst or second periodic pattern, among various possibilities), and maysubsequently resume monitoring the control channel according to thesecond (or possibly first) periodic pattern.

Thus, the provision of the control information by the base stationduring a slot that is not a specified slot according to the firstperiodic pattern may occur during a specified slot according to thesecond periodic pattern (or even the third periodic pattern), accordingto such a multi-stage periodic monitoring framework.

FIGS. 6-12—Additional Information

FIGS. 6-12 and the following information are provided as beingillustrative of further considerations and possible implementationdetails relating to the method of FIG. 5, and are not intended to belimiting to the disclosure as a whole. Numerous variations andalternatives to the details provided herein below are possible andshould be considered within the scope of the disclosure.

Cellular communication systems can provide a range of operatingconfigurations, at least some of which may generally be associated withdifferent control channel monitoring frequencies. For example, manycellular communication systems may support an idle mode (e.g., in whicha paging channel is periodically monitored to determine if a wirelessdevice should transition to a connected mode) and a connected mode. Evenwithin such a framework, there may be multiple operating configurationsfor either or both such modes of operation. For example, different idlemode configurations with different discontinuous reception (DRX) periodsmay be possible.

Within the connected mode, one possible operating configuration mayinclude a configuration in which a wireless device continually monitorsa control channel (e.g., a PDCCH). For example, in each subframe or slot(or other temporal unit according to the cellular communication system),there may be a portion in which the control channel is provided, andeach wireless device in connected mode may engage in wireless receptionactivity during at least that portion of each subframe or slot. This mayprovide the network with maximum scheduling flexibility, e.g., as fromthe network scheduler perspective, the scheduling flexibility mayincrease when a greater proportion of the wireless devices served by thenetwork are available for scheduling at any given time instance.

However, in some instances, such an arrangement may result in wirelessdevices performing a substantial amount of reception activity (e.g.,including blind decoding of the control channel) to no effective purposefrom the perspective of the wireless device. For example, if a wirelessdevice does not have sufficient data communication needs to perform datacommunication in every subframe or slot, and/or if the network issufficiently loaded that there are insufficient network resources for awireless device to perform data communication in every subframe or slot,there may be at least some subframes or slots in which the wirelessdevice monitors the control channel without receiving any grant, andthus consumes power (e.g., for powering the RF and processing componentsto monitor and blind decode the control channel) without achieving anyactual throughput.

Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide an operating configurationthat can reduce the power consumption for wireless devices for controlchannel monitoring, preferably while minimizing the degradation ofscheduling flexibility, at least according to some embodiments.

As one possible such approach, it may be possible to provide a periodicmonitoring configuration, e.g., in which a wireless device is configuredto monitor a control channel periodically. FIG. 6 illustrates anexemplary possible cellular communication timeline in which such anapproach is used, in which the control channel is a PDCCH, a PDSCH isused for downlink data communications, and a PUSCH is used for uplinkdata communications, according to some embodiments. As shown, accordingto some embodiments, a UE may be configured to monitor the PDCCH with aperiod P to save power. Thus, every P slots, the UE may monitor thePDCCH. The network may be able to schedule PDSCH/PUSCH/ACK communicationfor the UE by providing downlink control information (DCI) to the UEusing the PDCCH. Such communications may be scheduled for the same slotin which the DCI is provided, or in a subsequent slot, e.g., usingK0/K1/K2 values configured to indicate such information. For example, inthe illustrated scenario of FIG. 6, the K0 value used to schedule thePDSCH may be greater than 0 (e.g., 1, in which case there may be 1 slotbetween providing the DCI scheduling the PDSCH and performing thecommunication using the PDSCH).

In such a framework, if a UE does not detect any control information forthe UE on the PDCCH in a specified PDCCH monitoring slot, the UE may beable to enter a lower power state until the next PDCCH monitoring slot.Such a framework may substantially reduce wireless device powerconsumption, but may also limit network scheduling flexibility, and themaximum possible throughput may be limited by a factor of P, at leastaccording to some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary possible cellular communication timelinein which another possible approach is used, in which a periodicmonitoring configuration is also used, but in which it is furtherpossible to schedule multiple transport blocks (TBs) in a single DCIcommunication or in multiple DCIs in one slot. As shown, according tosome embodiments, a UE may be configured to monitor the PDCCH with aperiod P to save power. Thus, every P slots, the UE may monitor thePDCCH. When DCI is provided using a PDCCH, it may be possible for theDCI to schedule multiple TBs, e.g., with one TB transmitted using onePDSCH portion of a slot. It may also be possible that a UE receivesmultiple DCIs in a slot, which schedule multiple PDSCH communicationsacross multiple slots. Acknowledgements for TBs could be either bundled(XOR operation) together and sent only once per DCI or could be sentmultiple times (e.g., on a per TB basis), among various possibilities,according to such a framework. Such an arrangement may mitigate thethroughput limitation to periodic PDCCH monitoring, at least accordingto some embodiments. However, providing a DCI format capable ofscheduling multiple TBs may also represent a substantial designchallenge, at least in some instances.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary possible cellular communication timelinein which a still further possible approach is used, in which a periodicmonitoring configuration is used, and in which additional opportunisticPDCCH monitoring occasions are provided. According to the illustratedarrangement, a UE may be configured to monitor the PDCCH with a period Pto save power. Thus, every P slots, the UE may monitor the PDCCH.Similar to the arrangements of FIGS. 6-7, if the UE does not detect anycontrol information for the UE on the PDCCH in a specified PDCCHmonitoring slot, the UE may be able to enter a lower power state untilthe next PDCCH monitoring slot. If the UE does receive a grant for PDSCHdownlink communication, PUSCH uplink communication, or an indication totransmit an ACK in a given slot (‘N’), then the UE may be configured toadditionally monitor the PDCCH in one or more specified slots (e.g., N,N+1, etc.). Such an approach may work well when cross-slot scheduling isused for PDSCH scheduling (e.g., such as in the scenario illustrated inFIG. 8), among other possibilities. The network may be aware of thisopportunistic additional PDCCH monitoring, and so may be able to providean additional grant, which may give the gNB (e.g., in a NR context) anadditional chance to schedule the UE, while minimally increasing theamount of power consumed by the UE for PDCCH monitoring. Further suchopportunistic additional PDCCH monitoring occasions may occur if the gNBcontinues to provide grants to the UE, e.g., such that burstcommunications in which multiple grants can be provided over arelatively short window may be possible.

Such an approach may also mitigate the throughput limitation to periodicPDCCH monitoring, at least according to some embodiments, and may bepossible to implement using a DCI format configured to schedule a singleTB, at least in some instances. Since the additional PDCCH monitoringmay be performed opportunistically in such an approach, the additionalpower consumed for the additional PDCCH monitoring may be lower than theadditional power consumption that might be introduced by simply reducingthe monitoring periodicity.

As a still further possible approach, a multi-stage PDCCH monitoringarrangement may be used. According to such an arrangement, a UE may beconfigured to monitor the PDCCH with a period P to save power. Thus,every P slots, the UE may monitor the PDCCH. The UE may also beconfigured with another possible period P′ (e.g., with 1<=P′<=P), andwith a duration of dense PDCCH monitoring parameter K (e.g., >=1).

Similar to the arrangements of FIGS. 6-8, if the UE does not detect anycontrol information for the UE on the PDCCH in a specified PDCCHmonitoring slot, the UE may be able to enter a lower power state untilthe next PDCCH monitoring slot. If any PDCCH for data scheduling isdetected in a specified PDCCH monitoring slot, then the UE may changeits PDCCH monitoring periodicity from P to P′ for the next K periods,e.g., such that the UE may monitor the PDCCH on one or more additionaloccasions over the next K periods.

FIGS. 9-10 illustrate exemplary possible cellular communicationtimelines in which such an approach is used. In the example of FIG. 9,P=4, P′=1, and K=2. Thus, in this example, upon detecting datascheduling in a PDCCH, the UE may monitor the PDCCH in every slot forK*P (e.g., 8, in the illustrated example) slots. In the example of FIG.10, P=4, P′=2, and K=1. Thus, in this example, upon detecting datascheduling in a PDCCH, the UE may monitor the PDCCH in every other slotfor K*P (e.g., 4, in the illustrated example) slots. In each of theseexamples, during these additional PDCCH monitoring slots, the gNB maythus have more chances to schedule data communications for this UE.

Note that if desired, an implicit indication scheme may be used totrigger or extend a duration of dense PDCCH monitoring, e.g., such thatonly grant reception events occurring at the PDCCH monitoring slotsassociated with the initial period P may be considered to trigger orextend a duration of dense PDCCH monitoring, and such that any grantreception event happening in between those Pth slots may not introduceadditional PDCCH monitoring in the next period. Alternatively, ifdesired, a scheme may be used in which additional PDCCH monitoring by aUE is triggered or extended when the PDCCH is detected by the UEregardless of the slot location in which the PDCCH is detected.

If desired, it may also be possible to introduce an ‘action time’ oroffset to such an approach, e.g., such that there may be a delay betweentriggering a duration of denser PDCCH monitoring and actually performingPDCCH monitoring at the denser rate of PDCCH monitoring. FIG. 11illustrates an exemplary possible cellular communication timeline inwhich such an approach is used. In the illustrated example, similar toFIG. 10, parameter values of P=4, P′=2, and K=1 may be used.Additionally, an offset of 4 slots (e.g., equal to 1*P) may beintroduced after the PDCCH is detected before the period of denser PDCCHmonitoring begins. Such a technique may be useful if the network desiresa longer inter-scheduling time between two packets provided to a UE,among various possibilities.

Note that while FIGS. 9-11 are illustrative of a two-stage approach, amulti-stage approach to PDCCH monitoring in which more than two stagesis also possible. For example, a third stage (e.g., with a monitoringperiodicity of P″, where 1<=P″<=P′, for potentially still denser PDCCHmonitoring) could be introduced, if desired. Such a stage could betriggered by a UE receiving a grant during an additional PDCCHmonitoring slot associated with the second stage, as one possibility, orin any of various other ways, as desired. Similarly, any number ofadditional stages could be introduced, if desired.

FIG. 12 illustrates a high level view of possible UE states for PDCCHmonitoring according to various approaches described herein, at leastaccording to some embodiments. As shown, according to a periodicframework, a UE may be capable of continuously monitoring the PDCCH(e.g., monitoring the PDCCH in every slot), or of periodicallymonitoring the PDCCH (e.g., such as illustrated and described hereinwith respect to FIG. 6), while in an active state. The UE may also becapable of operating in a C-DRX state, in which state a short C-DRXmonitoring mode and a long C-DRX monitoring mode may be possible. The UEmay still further be capable of operating in an idle mode.

According to a periodic+opportunistic framework, a UE may be capable ofcontinuously monitoring the PDCCH, or of periodically andopportunistically monitoring the PDCCH (e.g., such as illustrated anddescribed herein with respect to FIG. 8), while in an active state. TheUE may also be capable of operating in a C-DRX state and in an idle modein such a framework.

According to a multi-stage framework, a UE may be capable ofcontinuously monitoring the PDCCH, or of periodically monitoring thePDCCH according to any of two or more periodic monitoring modes (e.g.,such as illustrated and described herein with respect to FIGS. 9-11),while in an active state. The UE may also be capable of operating in aC-DRX state and in an idle mode in such a framework.

In the following further exemplary embodiments are provided.

One set of embodiments may include a method, comprising: by a wirelessdevice: monitoring a control channel for control information accordingto a first periodic pattern, wherein according to the first periodicpattern, the wireless device monitors the control channel in a specifiedslot during each period of the first periodic pattern, wherein eachperiod of the first periodic pattern comprises a plurality of slots;receiving control information during a first slot, wherein the firstslot comprises a specified slot according to the first periodic pattern,wherein the control information received during the first slot schedulesa data communication; and monitoring the control channel for controlinformation in at least one slot that is not specified according to thefirst periodic pattern based at least in part on receiving controlinformation during a specified slot according to the first periodicpattern.

According to some embodiments, monitoring the control channel forcontrol information in at least one slot that is not specified accordingto the first periodic pattern comprises monitoring the control channelin a second slot, wherein the second slot is immediately subsequent to aslot in which the data communication is scheduled.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: receivingcontrol information during the second slot, wherein monitoring thecontrol channel for control information in at least one slot that is notspecified according to the first periodic pattern further comprisesmonitoring the control channel in a third slot based at least in part onreceiving control information during the second slot.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: monitoringthe control channel according to a second periodic pattern based atleast in part on receiving control information during a specified slotaccording to the first periodic pattern, wherein the second periodicpattern has a shorter period than the first periodic pattern, whereinmonitoring the control channel for control information in at least oneslot that is not specified according to the first periodic patterncomprises monitoring the control channel for control information in aspecified slot according to the second periodic pattern.

According to some embodiments, monitoring the control channel accordingto the second periodic pattern is performed for a specified duration,wherein the method further comprises: resuming monitoring the controlchannel according to the first periodic pattern after the specifiedduration.

According to some embodiments, the specified duration occurs at atemporal offset after receiving control information during a specifiedslot according to the first periodic pattern.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: receivingcontrol information during a specified slot according to the secondperiodic pattern that is not a specified slot according to the firstperiodic pattern; and monitoring the control channel according to athird periodic pattern based at least in part on receiving controlinformation during a specified slot according to the second periodicpattern that is not a specified slot according to the first periodicpattern, wherein the third periodic pattern has a shorter period thanthe second periodic pattern.

Another set of embodiments may include a method, comprising: by acellular base station: providing control information for a wirelessdevice according to a first periodic pattern, wherein, according to thefirst periodic pattern, if the cellular base station does not providecontrol information to the wireless device using a control channel in aspecified slot during a period of the first periodic pattern, thecellular base station also does not provide control information to thewireless device using the control channel for a remainder of slots ofthe period; providing control information to the wireless device usingthe control channel during a first slot, wherein the first slotcomprises a specified slot according to the first periodic pattern,wherein the control information provided during the first slot schedulesa data communication; and providing control information to the wirelessdevice using the control channel in at least one slot that is notspecified according to the first periodic pattern based at least in parton providing control information to the wireless device during aspecified slot according to the first periodic pattern.

According to some embodiments, providing control information to thewireless device using the control channel in at least one slot that isnot specified according to the first periodic pattern comprisesproviding control information to the wireless device using the controlchannel in a second slot, wherein the second slot is immediatelysubsequent to a slot in which the data communication is scheduled.

According to some embodiments, providing control information to thewireless device on the control channel in at least one slot that is notspecified according to the first periodic pattern further comprisesproviding control information to the wireless device using the controlchannel in a third slot based at least in part on providing controlinformation during the second slot.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: providingcontrol information for the wireless device according to a secondperiodic pattern based at least in part on providing control informationto the wireless device using the control channel during a specified slotaccording to the first periodic pattern, wherein the second periodicpattern has a shorter period than the first periodic pattern, whereinproviding control information to the wireless device using the controlchannel in at least one slot that is not specified according to thefirst periodic pattern comprises providing control information to thewireless device using the control channel in a specified slot accordingto the second periodic pattern.

According to some embodiments, providing control information for thewireless device according to the second periodic pattern is performedfor a specified duration, wherein the method further comprises: resumingproviding control information for the wireless device according to thefirst periodic pattern after the specified duration.

According to some embodiments, the specified duration occurs at atemporal offset after providing control information to the wirelessdevice during a specified slot according to the first periodic pattern.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: providingcontrol information to the wireless device using the control channelduring a specified slot according to the second periodic pattern that isnot a specified slot according to the first periodic pattern; andproviding control information for the wireless device according to athird periodic pattern based at least in part on providing controlinformation to the wireless device using the control channel during aspecified slot according to the second periodic pattern that is not aspecified slot according to the first periodic pattern, wherein thethird periodic pattern has a shorter period than the second periodicpattern.

According to some embodiments, the control channel comprises a physicaldownlink control channel.

According to some embodiments, the data communication comprises one of:a downlink data communication; an uplink data communication; or anacknowledgement communication.

A further exemplary embodiment may include a device, comprising: anantenna; a radio coupled to the antenna; and a processing elementoperably coupled to the radio, wherein the device is configured toimplement any or all parts of the preceding examples.

A yet further exemplary embodiment may include a non-transitory computeraccessible memory medium comprising program instructions which, whenexecuted at a device, cause the device to implement any or all parts ofany of the preceding examples.

A still further exemplary embodiment may include a computer programcomprising instructions for performing any or all parts of any of thepreceding examples.

Yet another exemplary embodiment may include an apparatus comprisingmeans for performing any or all of the elements of any of the precedingexamples.

Still another exemplary embodiment may include an apparatus comprising aprocessing element configured to cause a wireless device to perform anyor all of the elements of any of the preceding examples.

It is well understood that the use of personally identifiableinformation should follow privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular,personally identifiable information data should be managed and handledso as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use,and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

Embodiments of the present invention may be realized in any of variousforms. For example, in some embodiments, the present invention may berealized as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable memorymedium, or a computer system. In other embodiments, the presentinvention may be realized using one or more custom-designed hardwaredevices such as ASICs. In other embodiments, the present invention maybe realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium(e.g., a non-transitory memory element) may be configured so that itstores program instructions and/or data, where the program instructions,if executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform amethod, e.g., any of a method embodiments described herein, or, anycombination of the method embodiments described herein, or, any subsetof any of the method embodiments described herein, or, any combinationof such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to includea processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium (or memoryelement), where the memory medium stores program instructions, where theprocessor is configured to read and execute the program instructionsfrom the memory medium, where the program instructions are executable toimplement any of the various method embodiments described herein (or,any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or, anysubset of any of the method embodiments described herein, or, anycombination of such subsets). The device may be realized in any ofvarious forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A wireless device, comprising: an antenna;a radio operably coupled to the antenna; and a processor operablycoupled to the radio; wherein the wireless device is configured to:receive, from a base station: a first control information monitoringconfiguration including a first periodic pattern comprising a first oneor more slots for monitoring during respective periods of the firstperiodic pattern and a second one or more slots not to monitor duringthe respective periods of the first periodic pattern; and a secondcontrol information monitoring configuration including a second periodicpattern comprising a third one or more slots for monitoring duringrespective periods of the second periodic pattern and a fourth one ormore slots not to monitor during the respective periods of the secondperiodic pattern, wherein the second periodic pattern has a higherperiodicity than the first periodic pattern, the third one or more slotsare at least partly different than the first one or more slots, and thefourth one or more slots are at least partly different than the secondone or more slots; monitor a control channel for control informationfrom the base station according to the first periodic pattern based onthe first control information monitoring configuration, whereinaccording to the first periodic pattern, the wireless device monitorsthe control channel in a portion of each slot of the first one or moreslots during the respective periods of the first periodic pattern;trigger, in response to receiving first control information during saidmonitoring of the control channel according to the first periodicpattern, control channel monitoring according to the second periodicpattern based on the second control information monitoringconfiguration, instead of monitoring the control channel according tothe first periodic pattern, wherein said control channel monitoringaccording to the second periodic pattern includes monitoring the controlchannel for control information in a portion of each slot of the thirdone or more slots during the respective periods of the second periodicpattern; and monitor the control channel for control information fromthe base station according to the second periodic pattern.
 2. Thewireless device of claim 1, wherein monitoring the control channel forcontrol information from the base station according to the secondperiodic pattern comprises monitoring the control channel in a fifthslot, wherein the fifth slot is immediately subsequent to a slot inwhich a data communication is scheduled by the first controlinformation.
 3. The wireless device of claim 2, wherein the wirelessdevice is further configured to: receive second control informationduring the fifth slot, wherein monitoring the control channel forcontrol information from the base station according to the secondperiodic pattern further comprises monitoring the control channel in asixth slot based at least in part on receiving the second controlinformation during the fifth slot.
 4. The wireless device of claim 1,wherein monitoring the control channel according to the second periodicpattern is performed for a specified duration, wherein the wirelessdevice is further configured to: resume monitoring the control channelaccording to the first periodic pattern after the specified duration. 5.The wireless device of claim 4, wherein the specified duration occurs ata temporal offset after receiving the first control information.
 6. Thewireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is furtherconfigured to: receive second control information during a fifth slot ofthe third one or more slots according to the second periodic patternthat is not among the first one or more slots according to the firstperiodic pattern; and monitor the control channel according to a thirdperiodic pattern based at least in part on receiving the second controlinformation during the fifth slot according to the second periodicpattern, wherein the third periodic pattern has a shorter period thanthe second periodic pattern.
 7. An apparatus, comprising: a processorconfigured to cause a wireless device to: receive, from a base station:a first control information monitoring configuration including a firstperiodic pattern comprising a first one or more slots for monitoringduring respective periods of the first periodic pattern and a second oneor more slots not to monitor during the respective periods of the firstperiodic pattern; and a second control information monitoringconfiguration including a second periodic pattern comprising a third oneor more slots for monitoring during respective periods of the secondperiodic pattern and a fourth one or more slots not to monitor duringthe respective periods of the second periodic pattern, wherein thesecond periodic pattern has a higher periodicity than the first periodicpattern, the third one or more slots are at least partly different thanthe first one or more slots, and the fourth one or more slots are atleast partly different than the second one or more slots; monitor acontrol channel for control information from the base station accordingto the first periodic pattern based on the first control informationmonitoring configuration, wherein according to the first periodicpattern, the wireless device monitors the control channel in a portionof each slot of the first one or more slots during the respectiveperiods of the first periodic pattern; trigger, in response to receivingfirst control information during said monitoring of the control channelaccording to the first periodic pattern, control channel monitoringaccording to the second periodic pattern based on the second controlinformation monitoring configuration, instead of monitoring the controlchannel according to the first periodic pattern, wherein said controlchannel monitoring according to the second periodic pattern includesmonitoring the control channel for control information in a portion ofeach slot of the third one or more slots during the respective periodsof the second periodic pattern; and monitor the control channel forcontrol information from the base station according to the secondperiodic pattern.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein monitoring thecontrol channel for control information from the base station accordingto the second periodic pattern comprises monitoring the control channelin a fifth slot, wherein the fifth slot occurs at a specified intervalafter a slot in which a data communication is scheduled by the firstcontrol information.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processoris further configured to cause the wireless device to: receive secondcontrol information during the fifth slot, wherein monitoring thecontrol channel for control information from the base station accordingto the second periodic pattern further comprises monitoring the controlchannel in a sixth slot based at least in part on receiving the secondcontrol information during the fifth slot.
 10. The apparatus of claim 7,wherein the processor is further configured to cause the wireless deviceto: operate in a low power state for at least one of the second one ormore slots.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the control channelcomprises a physical downlink control channel, wherein to operate in inthe low power state for the at least one slot of the second one or moreslots comprises not monitoring the physical downlink control channelduring the at least one slot of the second one or more slots comprisesnot monitoring the monitoring the physical downlink control channelduring at least one occasion of the physical downlink control channel,wherein the first control information schedules a data communication,wherein the data communication comprises one of: a downlink datacommunication; an uplink data communication; or an acknowledgementcommunication.
 12. A cellular base station, comprising: an antenna; aradio operably coupled to the antenna; and a processor operably coupledto the radio; wherein the cellular base station is configured to:provide, to a wireless device, configuration information including: afirst control information monitoring configuration including a firstperiodic pattern comprising a first one or more slots for monitoringduring respective periods of the first periodic pattern and a second oneor more slots not to monitor during the respective periods of the firstperiodic pattern; and a second control information monitoringconfiguration including a second periodic pattern comprising a third oneor more slots for monitoring during respective periods of the secondperiodic pattern and a fourth one or more slots not to monitor duringthe respective periods of the second periodic pattern, wherein thesecond periodic pattern has a higher periodicity than the first periodicpattern, the third one or more slots are at least partly different thanthe first one or more slots, and the fourth one or more slots are atleast partly different than the second one or more slots; provide, tothe wireless device, first control information during a fifth slot ofthe first one or more slots according to the first periodic pattern; andprovide, in response to providing the first control information in thefifth slot, second control information according to the second periodicpattern based on the second control information monitoringconfiguration, instead of providing the second control informationaccording to the first periodic pattern, wherein providing the secondcontrol information according to the second periodic pattern includesproviding the second control information in a portion of a sixth slot ofthe third one or more slots during the respective periods of the secondperiodic pattern, wherein the sixth slot of the third one or more slotsis later in time than the fifth slot.
 13. The cellular base station ofclaim 12, wherein the sixth slot is a specified interval after the fifthslot.
 14. The cellular base station of claim 13, wherein the specifiedinterval is indicated by the configuration information.
 15. The cellularbase station of claim 12, wherein the cellular base station is furtherconfigured to: provide control information to the wireless device usinga control channel in a seventh slot based at least in part on providingcontrol information during the sixth slot.
 16. The cellular base stationof claim 15, wherein the seventh slot is according to a third periodicpattern.
 17. The cellular base station of claim 16, wherein the thirdperiodic pattern comprises a higher periodicity than the second periodicpattern.
 18. The cellular base station of claim 12, wherein providingcontrol information for the wireless device according to the secondperiodic pattern is performed for a specified duration, wherein thecellular base station is further configured to: resume providing controlinformation for the wireless device according to the first periodicpattern after the specified duration.
 19. The cellular base station ofclaim 18, wherein the specified duration comprises one or more periodsaccording to the first or second periodic pattern.
 20. The cellular basestation of claim 12, wherein the cellular base station is furtherconfigured to: provide control information for the wireless deviceaccording to a third periodic pattern based at least in part onproviding control information to the wireless device using a controlchannel according to the second periodic pattern, wherein the thirdperiodic pattern has a shorter period than the second periodic pattern.